Abstract-This paper describes the design, development, implementation and user evaluation of an interactive modular tile system, aimed to support balance rehabilitation of patients recovering from a stroke. The REHAP Balance Tiles system is an innovative tool, which has been developed in close collaboration with therapists and patients in stroke units of health rehabilitation institutes in Sydney, Australia and Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The system was designed to allow therapists to tailor exercises for each patient by changing the physical configuration of tiles. We report a user evaluation in a rehabilitation clinic, which lasted five weeks. Results indicate that the tiles can fulfill their envisioned purpose. They are received well by therapists, meeting requirements for ease of use, motivational feedback, modularity and flexibility.

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Physical rehabilitation therapies can be enhanced by using interactive technologies. Through several projects our team has developed an understanding of the practices and issues, and presented prototypes, interventions and demonstrators in order to gain feedback on our approach. The main requirements we have determined are motivation (offering rewarding feedback to the patients to stimulate them to participate fully in the therapies), customisation (the ability to adapt the systems to a wide range of needs of different patients and therapies), and independence (enabling the patients to follow therapies away from the hospital, when and where it suits them, under remote expert guidance of the therapists and practitioners). This demo presents three designs which were developed during the recent phases of the project.